The Cartographic Modeling Lab (CML) Shared Resource Core will work with investigators, faculty and students at Cheney University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania to apply geographic information science (GIS) research methods to the study of obesity and obesity-related health disparities. Specific aims include: 1. To advance the state of knowledge about the relationship between environmental factors and individual health outcomes - specifically, obesity and obesity-related health disparities - by applying GIS and spatial research methods. 2. To educate investigators and students at Cheney University and the University of Pennsylvania about how GIS and spatial analysis can be used to study health disparities. 3. To expand the application spatial analytic techniques and research methods to support investigators engaged in the Research and Pilot Research cores. Special emphasis will be placed on the use of raster GIS techniques to measure the social, environmental and health services contexts as much more continuous areas and to take into account a broad range of factors within the environment that can influence individual health outcomes. The CML will work closely with the GIS lab at Cheney regarding spatial data, data processing and GIS research methods as applied to obesity and obesity-related health disparities research.